| Honorific-Prefix: | Colonel The Right Honourable |
| The Viscount Ruffside | |
| Order1: | Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom |
| Term Start1: | 3 March 1943 |
| Term End1: | 31 October 1951 |
| Monarch1: | George VI |
| Primeminister1: | Winston Churchill Clement Attlee |
| Predecessor1: | Edward FitzRoy |
| Successor1: | William Morrison |
| Office2: | Member of Parliament for Hexham |
| Term Start2: | 14 December 1918 |
| Term End2: | 16 November 1923 |
| Predecessor2: | Richard Durning Holt |
| Successor2: | Victor Finney |
| Term Start3: | 29 October 1924 |
| Term End3: | 4 October 1951 |
| Predecessor3: | Victor Finney |
| Successor3: | Rupert Speir |
| Nationality: | British |
| Education: | Eton College |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Parents: | James Clifton Brown Amelia Rowe Brown |
| Children: | Audrey Clifton Brown |
| Relations: | Howard Clifton Brown (brother) |
Douglas Clifton Brown, 1st Viscount Ruffside, (16 August 1879 – 5 May 1958) was a British politician who represented the Conservative Party (UK). He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951. Upon stepping down as Speaker he became the Viscount Ruffside; the peerage became extinct with his death.
Clifton Brown was born on 16 August 1879. He was the fifth of ten children born to Amelia (née Rowe) Brown and Colonel James Clifton Brown, a Liberal Party Member of Parliament.[1] His maternal grandparents were Charles Rowe, who was mixed race, due to being of African descent, and his Lima-born wife Sarah.[2] [3] His elder brother was Howard Clifton Brown
His paternal grandparents were Alexander Brown and his wife Sarah Benedict Brown. His great-grandfather was the banker and merchant Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet, and his uncle was Liberal politician Sir Alexander Brown, 1st Baronet.
Clifton Brown was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Clifton Brown was a lieutenant in the Lancashire Artillery when on 26 March 1902 he was commissioned a second-lieutenant in the 1st Dragoon Guards, serving in South Africa during the end of the Second Boer War. He advanced to major in the regiment, and later became a lieutenant-colonel in the Volunteer force.
| Short Title: | Mr. Speaker Clifton Brown's Retirement Act 1951 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Long Title: | An Act to settle and secure an annuity upon the Right Honourable Douglas Clifton Brown in consideration of his eminent services. |
| Year: | 1951 |
| Citation: | 15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 2 |
| Royal Assent: | 7 December 1951 |
| Repealing Legislation: | Statute Law Revision Act 1963 |
| Status: | repealed |
| Collapsed: | yes |
Clifton Brown was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Hexham from 1918 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1951.[4] He was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1938 to 1943 and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1941 and raised to the peerage as Viscount Ruffside, of Hexham in the County of Northumberland, in 1951. An act of Parliament, (15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 2), was passed to provide him with a pension as former Speaker.[5]
In 1907, Ruffside was married to Violet Cicely Kathleen Wollaston (1882–1969), daughter of Frederick Eustace Arbuthnot Wollaston.[6] They were the parents of one child:
Ruffside died in May 1958, aged 78. As there were no surviving male issue from the marriage, the viscountcy became extinct. His widow, the Viscountess Ruffside, died in November 1969, aged 87.
| Escutcheon: | Gules a Chevron Or between two Bear's Paws erased in chief and four hands conjoined in saltire of the second in base on a Chief engrailed Or an Eagle displayed Sable |
| Notes: | Lord Ruffside was an agnate of the Brown baronets of Richmond hill. His arms, as displayed in the speaker's chamber, are the same as those in the baronets' arms. |